Turner Prize 2014 won by Irish film artist Duncan Campbell

By Jake Wallis Simons, for CNN

Updated 11:04 AM ET, Tue December 2, 2014

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Duncan Campbell's 'It For Others' – Irish artist Duncan Campbell has won the Turner Prize, one of the world's most prestigious art awards, for his film It For Others, pictured. Previous winners of the £25,000 prize include Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili. The Prize celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

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Duncan Campbell's 'It For Others' – Campbell's winning film makes use of archive footage from a 1953 film about African art to comment on colonialism. It also features a modern-day dance routine based on the equations in Karl Marx's "Das Kapital."

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Duncan Campbell's 'It For Others' – Speaking at the Tate Britain Museum in London, Campbell described how his film is about "how you can understand certain histories through objects". This African mask featured prominently.

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Turner Prize nominee: Ciara Phillips – The shortlist was comprised of four artists. One of these was Ciara Phillips. Based in Glasgow, Phillips was nominated for her vibrant screenprints and colorful textiles, displayed initially at her solo exhibition in The Showroom, London.

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Turner Prize nominee: Ciara Phillips – Phillip's work spans prints, textiles, photos and wall paintings. She is also known to work collaboratively with community groups and designers.

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Turner Prize nominee: James Richards – Cardiff -born artist James Richards was nominated for his film Rosebud, a 13-minute film that shows images from art books found in the Tokyo Library, where genitalia was scratched out to comply with censorship restrictions.

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Turner Prize nominee: James Richards – Richards works mostly with found footage and imagery, often evoking meaning through repetition. This piece, for example, which was shown at the Turner Prize exhibition at the Tate Britain, features repeated images of people associated with artist Keith Haring, woven into rugs.

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Turner Prize nominee: Tris Vonna-Michell – Tris Vonna-Michell, pictured, was nominated for his solo exhibition Postscript (Berlin) in Brussels. Born in Southend, Vonna-Michell's work tends to have a strong storytelling element.

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Turner Prize nominee: Tris Vonna-Michell – Tris Vonna-Michell is known to work in a variety of mediums, including spoken word, audio recording and live performance. His piece at the Turner Prize exhibition is a "visual script", pictured, using projections and photocopies to tell absurd and fragmented stories.

Story highlights

Mixed reviews circle the media as critics and audiences debate Campbell's work

A film that features a dance routine inspired by Karl Marx and examines African art has won Britain's most prestigious and controversial art prize.

The Turner Prize, which is worth £25,000 ($40,000), was awarded to the Irish film artist Duncan Campbell in a glittering ceremony last night.

His film, It For Others, which was described by the panel as "an ambitious and complex film which rewards repeated viewing", is a response to a "film essay" from 1953 about African art and colonialism.

This archive footage is interspersed with new material, including a dance routine based on the equations in Karl Marx's seminal work, "Das Kapital," created by the choreographer Michael Clark.

All of this is overlaid with a voiceover that imitates the style of a lecture.